The rest of John Stamp’s article confirms that knowledge of God must be on a whole other level from secular science.

St Gregory’s bottom-line to his fellow monk: Trust your own experience with God and don’t be swayed by mere argument. If your belief in God is based exclusively on arguments pro or con, then you’ll constantly be changing your mind. Doubt yourself. Doubt your own intellectual capacities. Doubt anything, but don’t be so foolish as to doubt the experience of the saints. But by his belligerence shown towards the Athonite monks, Barlaam demonstrates that he would rather prove himself in the right than accept the age-old traditions of Eastern spirituality. He would rather argue than pray!

Now St Gregory doesn’t renounce the “outer learning.” It is perfectly fine for gaining knowledge of the world. What it doesn’t do is tell us anything accurate about God.

“We do not forbid anyone to initiate himself in worldly education if he wishes, at least if he has not adopted the monastic life. But we would not advise anyone to devote himself to this unendingly, and we absolutely forbid them to expect any accurate (ἀκριβῶς ) knowledge of divine things from it, since it is not possible to extract any teaching about God from such an education.” (I.i.12)

The weakness of a secular education is ironically it’s very strength—it’s intellectual! The human mind is brilliantly capable of astounding argument, hypothesis, and conjecture. But St Gregory argues that knowledge of God is not such a human construct, subject to the vagaries of debate pro and con. Orthodox faith is far deeper than intellectual opinion. Human speculation about God shouts volumes about the men and women who recreate “god” in our own fickle image, but nothing about the God “Who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness, Who hath shined in our hearts.” (2 Cor 4:6) We cannot find spiritual enlightenment if we attend only to the material creation. Surprisingly, St Gregory the celibate monk describes knowledge of God as being ravished by God the Lover!

Who can argue against life?